[Freeciv-Dev] Re: non-smallpox idea

[Jacky Mallett <warlock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been looking into the game balance largepox vs smallpox issue, and
there is certainly one issue which heavily favours smallpoxes and should
probably be fixed.


The simple one is the corruption distance fall off of city science under
despotism. In effect this means that whilst a smallpox player is
guaranteed at least one science point from all their first 8 cities, (the
third wave of cities normally coincides with republic under that
strategy), and normally at  least one or two will have 2 or more. The
largepox player on the other  hand will be lucky to get 4-5 cities with 1
point, before the distance fall off hits them. This is also a problem in
largepox games - since island topology hits largepox much harder.

The effect is that there are dramatic differences in when republic
becomes available, with a commensurate knock on effect throughout the game
on  city growth, expansion, and technical development.

The easiest way i can think of to fix that is to also make the corruption
fall off proportional to the number of cities in the empire. This would even
things up between the two strategies, at least at the beginning of the
game. If science output (under despotism), became 1 after 2 cities, and 0
after 8 cities, this would effectively maintain the current status quo.

...jacky


On Thu, 22 Nov 2001, Greg Wooledge wrote:

> Jules Bean (jules@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
>
> > How about different kinds of lightbulbs?
>
> This is beautiful!  (I have no idea how to go about balancing it, though.)
>
> > For example, a fantasy modpack could have four totally
> > different types of 'lightbulb': fire, water, earth and air.
>
> I *love* it!
>
> --
> Greg Wooledge                  |   "Truth belongs to everybody."
> greg@xxxxxxxxxxxx              |    - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
> http://wooledge.org/~greg/     |
>